Possible tank crash?

Moondawg · Apr 27, 2020

Hey guys, this morning I woke up to my hob skimmer overflowing, and there was a pretty bad smell coming from the tank. I cleaned up the mess and turned the skimmer off. Probably 30min later my fish started freaking out. They then all started to breath heavily and wouldn't move on the sand. I did a 15% water change, and everything went back to normal. My skimmer keeps overflowing throughout the day, but with some pretty dirty water (not clear) and a lot of foam (not really bubbles). I did another 30% water change in the middle of the day, and the smell went away, but the skimmer kept overflowing, but not nearly as much. I was going to go to bed, and I turned the skimmer off, just in case. 20 min later I could hear my clownfish jumping around, and I found all my fish gasping on the sand again. I did a quick test for amonia and it was 0.0. I just did another 30% water change, and they seem to be doing better again. I took some reading after the last water change and nitrates, nitrites were 0, but phosphate was ~.25. The tank is 9 months old and has been really healthy besides some green hair already, which I have corrected with better flow and new lights. I did put some algae remover in earlier this week, but have not noticed any negative effects until this morning. My anenomes didn't seem affected at all either btw.

Moondawg · Apr 27, 2020

The tank is 50 gal with a fx4 canister (i know) a octo classic 90 skimmer, and mp40 pump. This is the first major issue I've had besides the green hair algae outbreak.

vetteguy53081 · Apr 27, 2020

That is bizarre as their well being is associated with skimmer. Check the tube that controls air going in to see if it’s clogged.

sarcophytonIndy · Apr 27, 2020

I would definitely clean out the canister and start running some carbon. And stop the algae remover, hopefully the carbon will get that out of the water. Keep doing water changes as well. Your skimmer overflowing is a good indicator that something is not right. Which algae remover is it?

Moondawg · Apr 27, 2020

sarcophytonIndy said:
I would definitely clean out the canister and start running some carbon. And stop the algae remover, hopefully the carbon will get that out of the water. Keep doing water changes as well. Your skimmer overflowing is a good indicator that something is not right. Which algae remover is it?

Imagitarium aglae remover, I almost feel like its working too well, and the algae decay is causing it. But I put it in 4 days ago.

Moondawg · Apr 27, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
That is bizarre as their well being is associated with skimmer. Check the tube that controls air going in to see if it’s clogged.

All the tubes are fine, I checked those earlier.

sarcophytonIndy · Apr 27, 2020

Moondawg said:
Imagitarium aglae remover, I almost feel like its working too well, and the algae decay is causing it. But I put it in 4 days ago.

Algae removers tend to suck all the oxygen out of the tank. That is likely the issue. Try keep your skimmer going. Increase surface agitation. Add air stones. Water changes. Anything to keep levels oxygen up.

Moondawg · Apr 28, 2020

sarcophytonIndy said:
Algae removers tend to suck all the oxygen out of the tank. That is likely the issue. Try keep your skimmer going. Increase surface agitation. Add air stones. Water changes. Anything to keep levels oxygen up.

This makes sense, I thought it was ammonia poisoning, but lack of oxygen seems like a good culprit.

brandon429 · Apr 28, 2020

Fish disease, fallow + qt. asking because o2 starved fish go to the top not the lowest o2 zone

did snails or other motile animals move towards the top of the tank/ curious to know, they’re excellent for assessing o2 with body position in the tank, micro brittle stars too